STUDENT SPOTLIGHT - RAND DEUCHLER

This week was a great week. This week's speakers were Sean McDowell andChad Hampsch. Chad Hampsch is a great teacher and our class had a question and answer session with him and I gained a lot from it, but Sean McDowell made the biggest impact on me this week and possibly this whole year.

It's Tuesday morning and Sean McDowell comes into the K-1 chapel, our classroom, introduces himself and says a story or two and then says, "When I put on this Jacket I become an atheist." He puts on the jacket and basically says I'm an atheist and I know that you are Christians so ask me any questions you might have. For the next hour and fifteen minutes, the majority of the Link Year class tried to poke holes in the "atheist's" worldview and try to convert the "atheist". By the end of the session, I felt like we were all two year olds trying to out-smart a parent, the point being that he made us feel like we had the intelligence of two year olds and gave us confidence that we could never "win" in an argument with an atheist professor. Though the exercise made us feel like a kid in T-Ball hitting against Randy Johnson, the point was to expose how we communicate with people who do not share our belief system.

To be honest this was a great lesson, because sometimes when we come in contact with a person of different beliefs or views we can be hostile, arrogant and even disrespectful, and we need to treat everyone, including atheists, with the love and respect of Christ. This lesson was a great one but I got something more out of it. This year at Link Year, I have learned a lot but Sean showed me that we should never stop learning about the wonderful God we have and the faith we live out everyday, not only by digging in the Word, but exploring the world around us through science.

Even though Sean made us feel stupid, our confidence and esteem was returned when Sean told us that he has studied atheism and apologetics for fifteen years and has done scenarios like this multiple times around the country. I learned valuable lessons through an experience I will never forget.